The year of establishment effect on brand heritage and attitudes

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate whether and how the inclusion of the year of establishment (YOE) in the brand logotype affects consumers’ perceptions of brand heritage and attitudes toward the brand. Design/methodology/approach – Two studies are conducted, one on 12 service brands (universities) and the other on 12 product brands (beers), with 250 and 200 respondents, respectively, testing a model of moderated mediation to estimate the effect of YOE on brand attitude through brand heritage as moderated by brand familiarity. Findings – Reporting YOE on the brand logo invokes heritage that in turn increases attitudes. Older YOEs are more effective than recent YOEs. YOE effects are stronger for less-known brands. The findings support full mediation of heritage and moderation of familiarity. Research limitations/implications – YOE invokes heritage, especially when YOE is old and the brand, less known. Additional research should examine the YOE effect among product categories where old means “outdated,” as in the hi-tech industry. Practical implications – Managers have been using YOE since long: the findings provide guidelines for leveraging heritage. YOE works but must be signaled in the logotype to be effective and is particularly helpful for less-known brands. Thus, YOE effect gives less-known brands an additional counterbalance to the market power of their known competitors. Originality/value – Previous research showed that companies can exploit their past heritage in the present times. Nonetheless, previous studies highlighted the complexity and paucity of tools to induce heritage. This is the first study to address the YOE effect. Empirical evidence also answers recent calls for easily implementable ways to induce heritage.